Folks, we have another biggie from Lenovo. This time, they decided to up the ante by packing their latest brainchild, the P770 with a whopping 3500mAh battery.
As some of you may know, the P770 comes from a reputable lineage of smartphones with enormous battery pack (P700 and P700i). But unlike its predecessors, the P770 has a slightly bigger screen at 4.5-inch with a slightly better resolution (960 x 540).
This Jelly bean handset sports a dual-core 1.2GHz processor coupled with a gigabyte of RAM and a standard 4GB internal memory which can be expanded up to 32GB via Micro-SD. It also has a pair of cameras, 5MP on the rear and VGA at the front.
But the biggest story here is the P770’s 3500mAh battery which is said to last for up to 26 days on Stand-by or equivalent to 29 hours of talk time.
Lenovo P770 specs:
4.5” IPS qHD display 960×540 pixels, 244ppi
1.2GHz dual-core processor
1GB RAM
4GB internal storage
up to 32GB via microSD
3G/HSPA, dual-SIM, dual standby
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.0
GPS w/ aGPS support
5MP rear camera w/ built-in flash
VGA front-facing camera
3500mAh battery
Android 4.1
Dimension: 133 x 67 x 11.9mm
Weight: 161g
The Lenovo P770 is now available in China and retails for CNY1,699 or a little over PhP11,000. There’s still no word when the handset will land to our shores, but I can already smell some prospective buyers aiming to grab this unit once it does.
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In the past, phones with TV functionality was a hit for some of our fellow Pinoys. Star Mobile looks to bring that fad back with the Astra. Catch the full review after the break.
Star Mobile has been making its mark on the local scene with their affordable products. But not only do their products are inexpensive; it also has a pretty decent build and performance which makes it a choice for most budget-conscious consumers. From the looks of it, the Astra seems to be just that: affordable and feature-packed.
Design and Construction
At first sight, the phone actually looks like an HTC Desire/Sensation with its curved edges painted in metallic brown with a small silver accent on the earpiece part. So if you’re a fan of Sensation’s design, you’re most likely to dig the Astra too.
The phone has a pretty straightforward layout. It has the Power button at the top in between the micro-USB and audio port and a pair of volume rocker on the right side.
Over the back is where the 8MP camera is located along with a pair of LED lights for flash. Still on the back side, towards the bottom part of the handset is a vent for the speaker and phones retractable antenna for the TV functionality.
Lift its plastic back plate and you’ll be greeted with its 1500mAh battery, two SIM card slots and a micro-SD card slot.
Multimedia
As mentioned on our first impression, the Star Mobile Astra has a 4.3-inch IPS display with WVGA resolution. It should be enough to give users a pleasant viewing experience and wide viewing angle thanks to its IPS display.
The sound output was also pretty good. It’s a tad hissy for the most part, but still good enough to get your basic aural needs covered. Its loudspeaker is loud enough for the sound to be audible even when you’re 3-4 feet away from the phone.
There’s no denying that this phone’s main selling point is its Mobile TV app which lets user watch local channels using the handset. As mentioned on our first impression, the TV Tuner is only analog which explains the sub-standard quality, but it should be watchable especially if you have a good reception in your area.
Performance and Usability
Knowing your way around the phone’s settings and options will just be a breeze as the Star Mobile Astra makes use of a stock Android ICS. The same can be said for the default keyboard which also stock Android.
The keys are well-spaced and provides good feedback when pressed but it’s too laggy for my liking which makes it a little bit difficult (and irritating at times) to compose messages.
The phone doesn’t break any new grounds in terms of speed, but its dual-core processor should deliver a decent enough performance to handle your basic smartphone needs without breaking a sweat. I did, however, encounter a number of apps crashing, random restarts and lags that we didn’t experience with the recent dual-SIM, dual-core smartphones we’ve reviewed. In short, the performance was OK, but is a bit lagging when pitted against other smartphones of the same category.
We’ve also experienced a handful of dropped calls and reception-related issues while using the Astra. Of course, network coverage can factor in on the dropped calls, but since we’re using the handset on the same location and using the same network as the other units in the past, we’re inclined to think that it’s the phone that’s causing this.
Camera and Video
Having an 8MP camera w/ flash is a rare feature for dual-SIM handsets in the market. In fact, we only know two devices which are equipped with such snapper; the Star Mobile Astra and the MyPhone A919 Duo. But after taking a handful of pictures using the Astra, I have to say the slight bump in the megapixel count didn’t have a significant difference from those dual-SIM handsets with 5MP camera.
The videos recorded using the Astra are usable for the most part, but don’t expect stunning quality out of it. The highest quality that this handset can go is 720p, but you’d have to manually set it on the camera settings because the default is 640 x 480.
Battery
Having two SIM cards is too much to handle for the Astra’s 1500mAh battery pack as it struggles to even last a day with light-to-moderate usage which includes SNS running on the background with feeds set to every 5 minutes, an hour’s worth of browsing over cellular data, 15-20 SMS, 10-15 minutes of calls, and an hour’s worth of playing Fruit Ninja.
Note that we didn’t even touch the Mobile TV functionality on that test. When we did use it, the phone only lasted 5 hours which includes two documentaries (Reel Time and Reporter’s Notebook), SNS running on the background with feeds set to every 5 minutes, an hour’s worth of browsing over cellular data and an hour’s worth of gaming.
Conclusion
The Star Mobile Astra has a desirable design, decent camera and of course Mobile TV. However, you’d have to live with the fact that the battery isn’t at par with its competition and is a bit laggy at times. But after using it as my main handset for a little over two weeks, I have to say that you won’t be disappointed shelling out PhP6,990 for this smartphone.
StarMobile Astra specs:
4.3-inch IPS display @ 800×480 pixels, 240ppi
MediaTek MT6577 1.0GHz dual-core Cortex-A9
PowerVR SGX 531
512MB RAM
4GB internal storage
up to 32GB via microSD (8GB included)
3G/HSPA, dual-SIM, dual standby
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.0
GPS w/ aGPS support
8MP rear camera w/ dual-LED flash
VGA front-facing camera
TV Tuner (analog)
Li-Ion 1500mAh battery
Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich
Dimension: 130.5 x 66.5 x 10.9mm
Weight: 132g
What we liked about the StarMobile Astra:
Decent hardware specs
Really affordable price
Built-in OTA TV tuner
IPS Display
Dual-SIM Android ICS phone
What we did not like about it:
Can be a battery hog
Can be a bit laggy at times
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Along with the announcement of the new PowerShot cameras and the EOS M, Canon Philippines also unveiled their new mid-range DSLR, the EOS 6D.
The Canon EOS 6D, being in the upper mid-range tier, sits in between the 60D and 7D. One of the main features of this camera is that it currently holds the title as the lightest full-frame DSLR in the market at only 680g (body).
This one boasts a 20MP CMOS Sensor which is powered by Canon’s latest image processor, the DIGIC 5+. In addition, the camera also has an 11-point AF system which is reinforced by 63-zone iFCL dual layer metering sensor to get you that perfect focus even when you’re shooting in low-light conditions.
Canon EOS 6D specs:
20MP CMOS sensor
36 x 24 mm Full-frame size
DIGIC 5+ image processor
ISO 100-25,600 (Low 50 and High 51,200/102400)
30 – 1/4000 sec. shutter speed
No Image Stabilization
Optical Viewfinder w/ 0.71x magnification
97% Viewfinder coverage
3.2” Clear View II TFT LCD, 1040k dots
4.5fps Burst Mode
Full HD video recording @30fps
H.264 video format
RAW + JPEG file format
SD/ SDHC/SDXC and Ultra-High-Speed memory cards (UHS-I)
Built-in GPS
Lithium-Ion LP-E Battery
Dimension: 145 x 111 x 71mm
Weight: 680g
Canon Philippines has yet to give a ball park figure for the Canon EOS 6D, but the camera is set to hit the shelves starting this December.
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When almost every Android device is being updated to Jellybean, Samsung has just released the ICS update for the GT-P7310 via OTA and Kies. Now if you’re a proud owner of this tablet, you may look at it as an insult or just be thankful that Samsung has not totally forgotten about your device.
The update started rolling out in Malaysia since last week and is set to reach other parts of the globe in the coming weeks, so don’t forget to check your tablet.
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Asus Philippines announces their latest high-end router offering, the RT-AC66U. But don’t for one second think that this router is just your average networking device as this bad boy enables you to do more than connect multiple devices.
The first thing you need to know about it is that it’s an 802.11ac dual-band router. For the uninitiated, these routers are capable of insane speeds of up to 1.3GB/S (three-stream). To put thing in perspective, your current Wireless-N routers has a cap of 450Mbps (three-stream) while the 802.11ac can outdo that by three folds.
And because of its blazing fast transfer rate, 5G routers (another term for 802.11ac routers) are more power-efficient compared to our Wireless-N routers. How so? Simple, the faster the file transfer the lesser the energy the router consumes.
But that’s not all. In fact, the ASUS RT-AC66U has a whole bag of tricks to satisfy all your networking needs. We’ll not go too detailed about its other features as we’ll reserve that for our full review, so do watch out for that.
Lastly, this router is also equipped with the ASUS AiCloud technology which adds a handful of other neat features to the already capable device. Some of these additional features include SmartSync which enables users to easily sync their offline files to their ASUS WebStorage account, and SmartAccess which allows users to access their files at home from virtually anywhere using their tablet or smartphone.
Asus RT-AC66U specs:
Network Standard: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/u
Data Rate: 450+1300Mbps
Antenna: 3x (detachable)
Operating Frequency: 2.4Ghz, 5.1~ 5.8Ghz
Encryption: 64-bit WEP, 128-bit WEP, WPA2-PSK, WPA-PSK, WPA-Enterprise, WPA2-Enterprise
Ports: 1x WAN, 4x LAN, 2x USB2.0
Dimension: 207 x 148.8 x 35.5 mm
Weight: 450g
The only thing that would keep you from getting this Asus RT-AC66U is the price — suggested retail price is Php11,990.
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